On August 15th activists and community members from around the Bay Area will be joining Richmond, California residents to protest the Chevron corporation’s devastating environmental and human rights record around the world. They’ll be working with a coalition of dozens of social justice and environmental organizations, called the Mobilization for Climate Justice, to highlight and stop Chevron’s legacy of criminality. From faulty environmental impact reports for a dirty crude expansion and ongoing pollution in Richmond, to using the Nigerian military to murder environmental activists in the Niger Delta, to toxic waste sites and subsequent harm to human health (that dwarfs the Exxon-Valdez spill) in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron is responsible for a substantial roster of injured people and denuded environments throughout the globe. Not the least of which are the lands and people of Iraq; which is why it’s important for anti-war activists to work with environmental and labor groups to oppose Chevron this August.

Anti-war groups should join the August demonstrations because Chevron is directly responsible for the war in Iraq. From the era of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship, Chevron has worked diligently to gain access to Iraqi oil. (The relationship started even earlier, following World War I, as Gulf Oil, which became Chevron, maneuvered to control Iraq’s oil in the Mandate period.) Since then it has created marketing agreements to sell Iraqi oil, working around the US imposed sanctions with the UN Oil for Food program, deemed genocidal by two directors of the program who resigned is disgust. At the same time, Chevron illegally bribed Iraqi officials to sell oil outside of the program, making the government an estimated $11 billion, strengthening the dictatorship.

Chevron was also instrumental in preparing the illegal aggression and occupation of Iraq. Part of the infamous “Cheney Energy Task Force” that met just days after George W. Bush was inaugurated, the Task Force worked with the National Security Council to merge “operational policies toward rogue states” with “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.” Since the invasion Chevron has pushed heavily for production contracts and production sharing agreements through the failed Iraq Oil Law. Now western oil companies’ best hope to directly extract Iraqi oil is the second round of extraction and production negotiations set for November. All the while Chevron maintains its marketing agreements with Iraq, refining millions of barrels of Iraqi oil at its Richmond refinery, profiting from the US war and occupation.

Besides the direct ties to the Iraq war, there are other reasons for anti-war groups to work on climate change issues, namely, US wars of aggression are often driven by our addiction to fossil fuels. As these resources deplete, the competition for them intensifies, furthering conflict and the resort to military “solutions.” The government spends trillions of dollars on the wars, and corporations reap record profits in the billions, while spending for social infrastructure, health care, schools, and investments to green our economy dwindle. Oil companies like Chevron profit from the wars, profit from the oil extraction, and profit while their actions heat the planet to unprecedented levels. Ultimately, ending the wars and cooling the planet are part of the same struggle, as unaccountable corporations poison our environment, disregard our future, and use government military intervention to acquire more oil. They must be stopped; at the top of the list is Chevron.

Iraqi Journalist Muntader al-Zaidi threw his shoes at Bush while saying, “This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq.” We symbolically join him as Bush leaves office. We also throw shoes for the widows, families, and US servicepeople killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. We throw shoes for those who are hurting while billions of dollars are wasted for war instead of bailing out those of us lacking food, housing, healthcare, jobs, and education.

We take Obama seriously when on election night he said, “This victory alone is not the change we seek; it is only the chance for us to make that change.” Will you join us in publicly committing that “we the people” will organize ourselves and take action to make those changes? We agree with Obama’s statement, “I don’t want to just end the war, but I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the first place.”

Here are 5 key changes that will begin to do this.

1) ALL TROOPS HOME FROM IRAQ NOW!
Including “non-combat” troops & private contractors (i.e. Blackwater), and close all US military bases in Iraq.

2) HELP REBUILD IRAQ
Give reparations for the human and structural damages Iraq has suffered, and stop the corporate pillaging of Iraq so that its people can control their own lives and future.

3) NO ESCALATIONS, NO NEW WARS
* No escalation of war in Afghanistan; troops should be withdrawn.
* Stop attacks inside Pakistan. Don’t attack Iran.
* Cut military aid to governments that violate human rights or international law, such as Israel in what Amnesty International calls an “unlawful attack on Gaza.”
* Close Guantanamo and all secret prisons

4) FROM GLOBAL MILITARY INTERVENTION TO REAL SECURITY AT HOME
* Close all 800 foreign US military bases.
* Reduce military budget and troops; stop wasting hundreds of billions needed for healthcare, housing, education, and green energy/jobs.

Gaza Action, a coalition of Arab, Jewish, and allied anti-occupation groups, is organizing a response to the ground invasion of Gaza. We invite your organization to co-sponsor and to attend the civil disobedience planned for Monday. We will host both arrestable and non-arrestable actions. We also encourage your organization to form an affinity group and select specific targets for hard blockades.

In the last week Israel has shown the brutality of its illegal war against the people of Palestine. And we have witnessed the US government’s unwavering support for these crimes. It is up to us to stop them. By targeting business a usual in San Francisco we up the social cost war-makers must consider when planning these assaults. By targeting the Congressional leadership based in San Francisco we send a clear message: “End US support for Israel. Stop the $3 billion in yearly military aid to Israel. End the assault, end the siege, and end the occupation.”

For more information go to
araborganizing.org
actagainstwar.net

or email
gazaaction@gmail.com

if your affinity group would like to co-ordinate actions email
dasw.media@gmail.com

We condemn the missile strikes that have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza strip as a brutal and murderous form of collective punishment. The strikes in heavily populated areas display a reckless disregard for the civilians of Gaza and are part of an ongoing war by Israel not against Hamas or terrorism, but against the Palestinian people.The following text is from a BBC eyewitness report in Gaza City:

“Doctors say the operating rooms are full and the morgues are full and they have no place to put the dead bodies. They are asking for every doctor who is not working today to come and help. We have seen in the streets of Gaza today and this evening many funerals . . . It’s a very bad situation . . . There were Israeli aeroplanes everywhere, hitting everywhere. You could see smoke from north to south, from west to east. The people are really in a panic. The main object for the people now is to find a secure place to secure their family.Gaza has no shelters, it has no safe places. The Hamas security compounds are in the middle of the city – it’s not the kind of place where you see compounds outside the cities.”

This recent offensive against people in Gaza is only the latest in the Israeli government’s continued occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.With the siege of Gaza Israel has shown a consistent disregard for the human rights of Palestinians leading to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Strip.Malnutrition rivals that found in sub-Saharan Africa, as Gazans cannot receive necessary food, fuel and medical supplies.The effects of the siege will greatly impact the hundreds of civilians injured by the missile strike.

We recognize that the US Government is complicit in these crimes against the people of Palestine. We call on the US government to end its support of the Israeli occupation, to stop the billions of dollars in military aid sent to Israeli, and to end Israel’s criminal raids and siege on the people of Gaza.We gather outside Senator Feinstein’s office to send this message. We stand in solidarity and sympathy with the innocent civilians being bombed in Gaza.

In the last week, eight people affiliated with the RNC Welcoming Committee were arrested in their homes or picked up off the streets and charged with conspiracy to riot and furtherance of terrorism. The Welcoming Committee was a group that formed to facilitate logistics (food, housing, convergence center) around the 2008 Republican National Convention Protests in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Most of them were arrested in the days leading up to the convention, and many had their homes raided by law enforcement. They were being held in the Ramsey County jail but as of Thursday were all released on bail or bond. They are now facing serious criminal charges and the potential of a protracted and expensive legal battle.

This case is potentially dangerous not just for these individuals but for organizers and activists all over the country. It represents a seemingly coordinated effort between state and federal agencies to crack down on organizers as a way of intimidating and systematically repressing movement building in all its forms. It now falls to all of us to fight these charges not just for these eight people but to protect our friends, our movements and our communities.

Currently, our immediate need is for financial resources. We are asking for people to donate money or set up benefits in their own communities.

You can donate by going to http://www.nornc.org and clicking on the “Donate to RNC Welcoming Committee Legal Support” button.